Conversations with Davros…

Conversations with Davros…

Part 1. First awakening

Jaruzel was there when they put the old man into the cryo-containment unit. He was still frozen when they'd transferred him, so it wasn't until six months later that he actually got to speak to the old boy. The new unit was more reliable than the one he'd been put in back on his home world, Skaro, but it still required periodic checks. Jaruzel had been assigned to defrost this particular criminal every six months just to make sure he was still ticking. He didn't think for one second that he wouldn't be. They'd all heard the stories of how hard it had been to kill Davros. The Thals had dropped bombs on him, putting him into his wheelchair. The Daleks, his own creations, had shot him. He'd lain dormant for millennia, while the selfsame Daleks went of to pillage the universe, and still he'd survived! There's no stopping the old codger, thought Jaruzel as he unlocked the cryo-chamber controls. In silence, he tapped out the security codes on the frost-covered keypad, and waited as the chamber slowly defrosted Davros for the first time since his initial incarceration.

As expected, Davros didn't have the fastest wake-up time after being in the cooler for more than a year. It had been at least an hour before the clawed hand shuddered into life. His mechanical third eye glowed weakly in the dimmed lights and a weak, rasping, wheeze blew mist from the slit he called a mouth. "Huuurrgghh. Where? Where am I?" A taloned finger flicked a switch on his chairs control panel. "Why have my motor circuits been deactivated?" The switch was flicked backwards and forwards in annoyance. "Where are my Daleks? Why are they not before me?" He hissed. "Where…" He stopped as he heard Jaruzel shift in his chair. "Who is that? Where are you? Show yourself before me." Jaruzel stood up, and walked over to the chair, just slightly out of reach of the emaciated scientist. "Welcome back to the land of the living Davros. You are on a maximum security prison station, and the guest of honor." Davros was silent, digesting the information slowly. "Prison ship? Why am I here? I have done no crime." The mechanically assisted voice purred, as he spoke. Like a cat who was being stroked by its owner in the knowledge it had left the corpse of a dead bird at the door. Jaruzel shook his head. "You have been tried for crimes against all sentient life. The charge was the creation of the Daleks, sentence was passed accordingly." The cripple gasped as he feigned astonishment. "My Daleks were designed to be a force for good! Not evil. I cannot be tried for the independent actions of my creations. Would you try a person for making a gun that was used to kill? I think not." Jaruzel sighed, and kicked away some of the frigid clouds of air. "No I wouldn't. But then I didn't try you. I just make sure you survive the cryo-chamber for the rest of my career. Believe me, I'm not too fond of the idea of having to defrost you every six months for the rest of my working life." A sneer crossed Davros' face. "I should not worry about looking after me for the rest of your career." His clawed hand beckoned Jaruzel closer. "Come. I wish to talk. Tell me what has been happening in my absence." Jaruzel walked back to the control panel, and picked up a small pot. "First we have to get some food inside you." He walked back to Davros, and perched the pot on the front of his chair. Davros looked down. "And what is this?" Jaruzel was wheeling a chair over to the trapped scientist. "That? Well, we both know your digestive system isn't really up to scratch. This has ll the nutrients you need, plus some medical nanobots to try and clear up some of the radiation and genetic damage you've suffered." The hacking sound of Davros's laugh echoed throughout the cold chamber. "That is most generous of you." Jaruzel sat down. "Why did you do it? Why create something as foul as the Daleks?" Davros took another sip from the pot. "It was an experiment. The Daleks were meant to be a new breed of battle soldiers. The aim was to tip the balance in our war with the Thals." Jaruzel nodded. He'd heard about this from the captain when he'd been given the duty. "That doesn't explain why they are so evil." Davros looked thoughtful for a moment. "The first daleks were augmented Kaleds. The sci-corp thought they had acheived the perfect soldier. Pah! They had created a creature that had a conscience. I could see further than that, much further. I was much younger then. I had only just joined the elite group. The Thals had discovered what we had tried to do. They also discovered where the original elite bunker had been. Decades of genetic research was destroyed in an instant." Somehow Davros seemed defeated. "What happened?" The old man snarled, as he remembered what had happened to him on that fateful day.

"I had been working with accelerated evolution for a number of years. Limited success had pushed my area of research into the dark. It was ironic that the Thals provided the breakthrough that I needed. Of the original elite, I was the only one to survive the blast. Because of the Thals, I was crippled. Burnt by radiation and scarred for life. I spent years designing my life support systems, while radiation induced cancer slowly ate me alive." His remaining hand shook with rage. "You asked what made me do it. Revenge." He hissed. "Revenge for my people. Revenge for what they did to me.The Thals deserve to be exterminated from the face of the Universe. The Daleks were designed to do just that. It defines their existence. The Thals and all their ideals must be exterminated! At whatever the cost!" Jaruzel gently pushed his wheeled chair back slightly. Davros continued. "I was working in the main bunker on my latest creation. My original idea had been to accelerate the evolution of certain crustaceans. I had achieved a modest success with some bi-valves. They were capable of air breathing, and had limited locomotion on land. Very heavily armoured with their shells, they were a promising strain. My laboratory was a sealed bio-containment unit. Some of the other elite were a little frightened by my work. Fools. So they had me pushed into a cramped laboratory, one that saved my life." Such a long talk was obviously tiring, as Davros had started to wheeze badly. Jaruzel got up and wheeled his chair back to the main console. "Time, I think, to stop for a while. I'll see you in six months Davros. We can continue your story then." Davros spluttered and spat with indignation. "What! You have just woken me up!" Heard Jaruzel, as the glass wall of the cryo-chamber dropped to the floor, cutting off the insane scientist's rantings. A frigid mist filled the chamber, and the noise quietly went away. Jaruzel shook his head. Time to get back to making the replacement components for the old man's chair, he thought as he walked out of the room.